Wrath of the Lich
by Ruinous Virtue
Summary: Taylor dies in the locker, hating everyone. Her tormentors, for hurting her over and over. Her peers, for standing by and watching as they tore her apart. The Winslow staff for ignoring her, for siding with her enemies. Her father, for failing to notice what was wrong, failing to save her. Her hate remakes her, turning her into the greatest evil the world has ever seen.


_Damnit!_ Armsmaster cursed to himself. They had just lost yet another city to the Lich. That brought the total up to 17, if one didn't count the number of suburban areas that had been lost. If something didn't change, fast, the entire eastern US would be lost within the month.

 _They had known she would send her ungodly horde here soon. They had prepared. Civilians were evacuated, capes were called in, the military brought every weapon they could muster short of a nuclear missile. It wasn't enough. More than 80 capes, dead. Some 10,000 soldiers, killed. Countless weapons now in the hands of a monster who seemed to want nothing less than the annihilation of the human race._

He and Dragon had worked together to design a program that would predict the movements and plans of the enemy, but even that wasn't enough to turn the tide. After all, how could you really fight an enemy like this? The Lich's power was on par with the Endbringers- no, beyond them. Every person they lost was brought back as a rotting, festering nightmare, fighting for the Lich. It seemed like for every undead cape they destroyed, another two of their own were killed and turned into nigh indestructible enemies.

 _Vista screamed in horror as Gallant went down. He had made the mistake of going after the Lich herself, and had paid for it. Her scream redoubled as her dead teammate rose once more to his feet and turned towards her. Overcome by grief and fear, she fumbled her power, failing to do anything of consequence. She died mercifully quickly when Gallant's cooling hands reached out and snapped her neck._

He supposed he should just be glad they hadn't lost one of the Triumvirate yet- still, it was only a matter of time. And once they lost one of those three, moral would drop out and casualties would skyrocket. As if they weren't losing people fast enough as it was.

 _The field hospital was being repainted red. Shambling corpses slowly ripped apart any non-cape who hadn't managed to run. Glory Girl was fighting a losing battle to protect her sister. She dealt a blow to one of her foes that caved in his head, killing him. A scream from behind caused her to whip around. The distraction proved fatal. Her last sight in this world was her beloved little sister being eaten by a swarm of monstrosities._

How had things gone so bad, so quickly? Less than a month ago, Brockton Bay had been whole. The undead had been a thing of myth. The world had been in a bad way, but there had been hope, no matter how little. Now? No one could see a way out. Some people had started killing themselves, in violent, messy ways, to make sure they wouldn't come back as a monster.

 _Battery lifted the shotgun, examining it as if it held the answers to every question she had ever asked. Satisfied with what she saw, she adjusted it so the muzzle was at her chin and pulled the trigger. When the spray of blood cleared, there wasn't much left of her head. Certainly not enough for anyone to know she had gone to join her husband with a smile._

He was the only Brockton Bay hero left. Even the villains from his city had been taken out by now. New York had been similarly devastated. Alexandria's fury at the deaths of her Wards had nearly led to her being killed when she went after the Lich. Luckily, Legend had gotten there in time to help her get away.

 _Dragon's voice rang out from the base's loudspeakers. "Injured capes incoming. Alexandria and Legend, Alexandria is in critical condition and Legend has lost a lot of blood. Get the med bay ready." Colin swore darkly, but he supposed he should just be happy no other capes were here to see two of the Triumvirate limping back, beaten and bloody._

After that fight, the Lich had been given the first ever SS threat rating. More than one cape had immediately refused to fight her any longer, instead opting to flee to another continent. The most common choice, oddly, was Africa. Likely due to its relatively sparse population. It hadn't saved them. Unbeknownst to the PRT, the Lich had already started taking over huge portions of Europe and Africa. Asia was already lost. India and China had fallen in mere days, providing the Lich with literal billions of minions. The rest of the continent had been destroyed soon after.

 _The massive horde swarmed over entire cities at a time, consuming everything in their path. In their wake was nothing but desolate, empty husks of the once teeming population centers._

Rumor had it the Slaughterhouse Nine had tried to join up with her at one point. She had killed them and added them to her armies, just as she had done with every other cape who tried to side with her or surrender in hopes of being spared. So many fools had tried to escape death by throwing themselves to the mercy of a being who had none. All it had achieved was bringing death to them that much faster.

" _I'll go find out what she wants. Maybe we can make a deal with her, find a way to end all this," Velocity pleaded._

" _She doesn't_ want _anything. If there was a way for us to bargain with her, she would have demanded something of us by now," Armsmaster argued. "If you go she'll just kill you."_

" _I gotta try," the speedster responded before turning and running off at his top speed. Two days later, Colin found himself trying to cut his former comrade's head off._

An alarm quickly brought him out of his musings. The Lich's armies had arrived. _How?_ He pulled up a video feed from one of the cameras outside and saw Strider, half his torso missing and his face rotting off. _Oh._ Looking over the forces arrayed against him, Colin knew he was going to die here. With the huge number of zombie capes Strider had brought along, he would never be able to fight them all off, even with the help of the other capes at this base. The only question, as he gazed down at his halberd, was whether he wanted to go down fighting or deprived the Lich of yet another soldier.

A/N: Taylor, as the Lich, goes on to wipe out the global population. Once humanity is wiped out, she turns her attention to the Endbringers, killing then as well. After that, she goes after Scion, but loses. This was basically a very morbid examination of just how incredibly badly things can go when an emotionally traumatized person who has been left to die by all and sundry gets powers. If you liked this, keep a look out. I'm planning to do another Worm story in the near future. I have a few ideas and I haven't decided which to use yet, but it probably won't be too much longer before I get a prologue posted for that. I promise, it won't be nearly this morbid.

Edit, 10/1/16: removed some grammatical errors that were pointed out to me. I don't have a beta, so let me know if you see any more!


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